The Court of Appeal found in favour of MUR. The parties referred the dispute to arbitration and when the tribunal awarded RTI damages, MUR appealed to the English courts. RTI denied that the US sanctions prevented MUR, a Dutch entity, from trading with it and argued that the reasonable endeavours wording in the force majeure contract required MUR to accept payment in euros instead of dollars. MUR asserted that the sanctions prevented it from dealing with RTI, particularly given that RTI would not be able to make the payments in dollars required under the contract. The relevant event would only be considered force majeure if it could not be overcome by the reasonable endeavours of the party affected. The relevant clause defined a force majeure event as one that prevented the loading or unloading of goods, by reference to various categories of events including war, embargo, restrictions on monetary transfers or 'any rules or regulations of governments or any acts of interference or acts or directions of governments'.

As a result of the sanctions being imposed, MUR refused to ship RTI's goods, citing a force majeure clause that excused the party giving notice of its obligations under the contract. Shipping firm MUR had an ongoing contract with RTI, which was a subsidiary of one of the entities that had been sanctioned. RTI) relates not to the current conflict in Ukraine but to sanctions imposed by the US in April 2018 against a number of Russian individuals and entities. The dispute in this case ( MUR Shipping v.

The court found that it had been entitled to do so: it had been reasonable to take time to review the situation, and the shipper was not obliged to mitigate the effects of the sanctions by accepting payment in euros instead of dollars.

As many businesses did when COVID-19 prevented them from operating, shipping provider MUR looked to its force majeure clause. As the UK and EU continue to expand their sanctions lists, a recent English Court of Appeal decision provides comfort to businesses trying to understand how international sanctions regimes affect their supply and sales contracts.

Chain of causality